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To everybody who is talking about this being out of context: in what context is the alleged behavior okay?

by cwyers 12y ago

sjm-lbm 12y ago
The article makes it sound like "That is no excuse" is referring to taking time off work to see your child born - in other words, there is nothing that could excuse someone taking off time for that. It's possible that he's merely saying that taking time off for something so important is no excuse for failing to request the time off with HR, failing to ensure that a different team member could be present in a meeting, or something along those lines - in other words, not that taking time off for important family reasons isn't OK, but rather that things still need to be handled properly even for things as important as taking time off to be with your partner while she was giving birth. Something like that might not be the kindest thing to do, but I can at least understand the logic behind it.
- cwyers 12y ago
  The alleged e-mail seems to mitigate against that reading: > That is no excuse. I am extremely disappointed. You need to figure out where your priorities are. We're changing the world and changing history, and you either commit or you don’t. "Figure out where your priorities are," not follow procedure. "Commit or you don't." There is not a terrible lot of ambiguity here.
pbreit 12y ago
It's unlikely the employee was expected to miss the actual birth, despite what the book apparently tries to imply (i.e., context is missing).
- cwyers 12y ago
  Assuming the Business Insider summary is correct (which is an assumption, yes), the book isn't trying to imply it, the book is outright claiming it. It is possible that either the book or the Business Insider article is mistaken -- gets facts wrong, is misleading, whatever. That's not "out of context" so much as it is "being wrong," though.
  - pbreit 12y ago
    True. I guess the problem I had was that it quoted Elon but not the employee. So it was lacking context in that manner.

To everybody who is talking about this being out of context: in what context is the alleged behavior okay?

by cwyers 12y ago

To everybody who is talking about this being out of context: in what context is the alleged behavior okay?

The article makes it sound like "That is no excuse" is referring to taking time off work to see your child born - in other words, there is nothing that could excuse someone taking off time for that. It's possible that he's merely saying that taking time off for something so important is no excuse for failing to request the time off with HR, failing to ensure that a different team member could be present in a meeting, or something along those lines - in other words, not that taking time off for important family reasons isn't OK, but rather that things still need to be handled properly even for things as important as taking time off to be with your partner while she was giving birth. Something like that might not be the kindest thing to do, but I can at least understand the logic behind it.

cwyers 12y ago
The alleged e-mail seems to mitigate against that reading: > That is no excuse. I am extremely disappointed. You need to figure out where your priorities are. We're changing the world and changing history, and you either commit or you don’t. "Figure out where your priorities are," not follow procedure. "Commit or you don't." There is not a terrible lot of ambiguity here.

pbreit 12y ago

It's unlikely the employee was expected to miss the actual birth, despite what the book apparently tries to imply (i.e., context is missing).

cwyers 12y ago
Assuming the Business Insider summary is correct (which is an assumption, yes), the book isn't trying to imply it, the book is outright claiming it. It is possible that either the book or the Business Insider article is mistaken -- gets facts wrong, is misleading, whatever. That's not "out of context" so much as it is "being wrong," though.
- pbreit 12y ago
  True. I guess the problem I had was that it quoted Elon but not the employee. So it was lacking context in that manner.